Today’s interview subject is Hayden Wills, a talented designer whose grungy graphics and animated posters are a real standout in our Instagram feed.
To kick things off, could you please introduce yourself?
I’m Hayden Wills, I’m a freelance graphic designer from the UK, and I specialise in motion graphics and poster design. You can find most of my work on Instagram, but I’m also branching out onto other platforms like TikTok and YouTube.
How did you get into the art of posters?
I got into poster design because I wanted to improve my Photoshop skills and try new styles, which is much easier to do when you base your work off media you love. It sort of just grew from there and turned into a business for me, which I never really expected.
Your work is very textured and grungy, with a retro feel to it. What are some of the influences behind your style?
Being from the UK means you’re part of a culture that really celebrates grunge media and inspires work that is rough and authentic. Most of my inspiration comes from that sphere mixed with old-style comic books and manga. I also take a lot of inspiration from artists on instagram such as @getarealjobkid and @piperferrari_ who both do an incredible job at creating unique and rough artwork. There are too many artists to count really, this interview would be miles long if I could name all of my favourites.
Your animated posters are the standout of your Instagram gallery. What was the first poster you animated and why?
My animated posters were originally an experiment. I was watching the recent episodes of One Piece and thought it might be interesting to see some of the opening footage play out in a unique way in a medium that is usually static. So I spent about twelve hours making my One Piece motion poster.
After seeing how much people enjoyed animated posters I decided to put more of a focus on them. Blending animation with a static medium allows for a much more open form of expression, plus they look cool, so that’s a bonus.
What was your most time-consuming animated poster? Which one was the easiest?
My most time-consuming animated poster is probably my Spirited Away poster which took me around 20 hours. I was still unadjusted to making content like that and I wasn’t using After Effects and other software that would have made my life easier, purely just Photoshop. It took so long as I had to animate 100 frames for the poster. The result worked well though!
For the easiest poster, any of the posters I’ve made recently have been the easiest, as I’ve adjusted to programs like AE which have sped up the process so much with the same level of quality.
Do you have any fun stories about making art?
I suppose this isn’t as much of a ‘fun’ story, but one of the main reasons why I got into graphic design and persevered so much was because I made a logo for my old stepdad when I was a teenager. He told me it was awful, and to be fair it wasn’t good, but sixteen year old me didn’t appreciate the honesty! So when I properly started graphic design I had that voice in the back of my head saying ‘right you have to become the best graphic designer possible purely just to prove a point’. Which is rather petty, but it brought me a career, so pettiness works!
Finally, what is the favourite commission you’ve ever done?
That’s tough. I’m currently doing some work with Warner Brothers which I’m not at liberty to talk about just yet, but that might be my personal favourite. I truly love most of the work I take on and being able to work with some really talented creatives makes it all the more worthwhile.
Follow Hayden Wills on Social media:
Instagram: @designbyhayd
Youtube: @designbyhayd
TikTok: @designbyhayd
